After traveling 75 million miles during six months on the international space station, Expedition 11 Commander Sergei Krikalev and NASA ISS Science Officer John Phillips returned to Earth today. With them was American Greg Olsen, who spent eight days on the station under a commercial agreement with the Russian Federal Space Agency.

The Soyuz spacecraft with Krikalev, Phillips and Olsen landed in north-central
Kazakhstan, about 53 miles (85 kilometers) northeast of Arkalyk, at
8:09 p.m. CDT. The crew's families will greet them at Star City, Russia,
near Moscow, early tomorrow. Krikalev and Phillips will remain in Star
City for post-flight debriefings before returning to Houston in late
October. Krikalev and Phillips launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome,
Kazakhstan, April 14. They spent 179 days, 23 minutes in space. During
their mission, they welcomed the Space Shuttle Discovery crew as it
returned the shuttle to flight on STS-114.

While on the station, Krikalev amassed more time in space than any
human. He is a veteran of six spaceflights, including two to the Russian
space station Mir, two shuttle flights, and the first international
space station expedition. Krikalev has 803 days, 9 hours and 39 minutes
of time in space. On Aug. 16, he surpassed the previous record set by
Cosmonaut Sergei Avdeyev of 747 days, 14 hours and 14 minutes.

The new station crew, Expedition 12 Commander and NASA Science Officer Bill McArthur and Flight Engineer Valery Tokarev, will have light duty for the next few days as they rest from a busy handover. They will remain in orbit six months, during which they are planned to perform at least two spacewalks. The first spacewalk will occur in early November. For more about the international space station, visit:

The next ISS status report will be issued Friday, Oct. 14, or earlier if events warrant.

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